Higher ISOs; See That Wasn't So Hard - Part Two

In my last post, I talked about getting used to trusting the ISO processing of my camera. Well, I have finally embraced the goodness of letting my camera use its power to overcome my relatively cheaper zoom lens and its smaller aperture. There isn't much to say on this, other than, I went to a pair of hockey games and took my camera. The arena was small enough that I could easily take good photos with my lens, and then crop them without any real effort to make some nice looking action shots. But there was only one way to do that - accept a higher ISO setting. I did, and even with the cropping, I enjoyed the results. I think that I'm one step closer to completely trusting technology!

Equipment Used
Nikon D7100 Camera
55-200mm f/4-5.6 lens

Images

Trust Your Camera's ISO Processing

Ever since I've begun digital photography, the noise created by high ISO settings has absolutely driven me batty. I love the crispness of the lowest ISO settings. Well, this creates trouble when you don't have a lens to get the image you want without cropping. Cropping makes the ISO noise more apparent - it's just that simple. This bit of obsessiveness on my part has really hurt my photography. I've kept myself shooting wide open, and letting the shutter speed drop too low for my subject when confronted with low light. This makes for bad photography!

I at least got over my fear of thick blacks in my photographs, as I talked about here. Aaron Zebrook really opened my eyes as to how you can use the darkness of your frame to make your photographs that much better. But, still, I've not pushed my camera. Here I have this incredible piece of technology, and I'm not asking it to even break a sweat. And, as a result, my photos just aren't that good without a boost from Lightroom. Even then, a lot of what I'm failing to do can't be rescued with software.

Since it's winter, a lot of my photography is being done in either terrible light (grey, cloudy skies), or in darkness. This has made me pretty frustrated, to be honest, because the things I want to shoot aren't only perfect for my 35mm f/1.8 lens. I like using my cheap zoom, which gets me down to f/5.6, and means I have to get my shutter speed up to around 1/250 just to keep a sharp shot. In this light, that's not happening - unless I learn to suck it up and trust my camera's ISO performance.

Equipment Used

Nikon D7100 Camera
35mm f/1.8 lens
55-200mm f/4-5.6 lens
Nikon MC-DC2 Cable Release
Velbon Tripod

Images

A zoo shot with the telephoto lens (100mm f/4.5), ISO bumped up to 400. This is cropped.

250mm, 1/200, f/5.6, ISO 800. That still wasn't enough, and I "over developed" the photo by a full stop in Lightroom.

200mm, 1/40, f/5.6, ISO 640. A little bit more of a challenge to keep the motion, keep the detail in flat light, and keep the camera steady!

What could have been an amazing shot - but focusing in the dark means manual focusing. I neglected to use Live View, and, as a result, this is out of focus.

Shooting in Low Light - Welcome to Winter in Germany

This is sunset. Full daylight was only 20 minutes prior!

In the northern climes,daylight doesn't last for long. When the sun sets, it sets fast. When you're enjoying the traditional Christmas markets, filled with lights and internally lit stands, the lighting environment is positively nuts. Daylight, various types of artificial light - not a single setting in the camera is static between shots.

What do you want to expose for? Without additional
light, you have to choose

In order to make better photographs, as I walked through the market, enjoying all of the sights, sounds, smells, and people, I consistently had to adjust the ISO, shutter speed, f-stop, and white balance. Oh, the white balance. Want a nice shot of the architecture surrounding the market? One setting. How about the inside of one of the market stalls? Change that setting right up. The one nice thing is, if you're shooting in RAW, at least you can avoid the white balance issue, and deal with that in post processing. Honestly, that would be the best way to handle things for the beginning photographer, like myself. Nailing the manual camera settings is what is most important. The white balance feel comes with time - just as the ISO, shutter speed, and f-stop feels come with time.

Unless you're bringing your own lighting in situations like these, not only are you composing the shot in terms of what appears within the frame, but you are also composing the light within the frame. In the above shots, I could have taken an identically framed photo, but composed the technical settings in such a way that the subject of the photo completely shifts. What it boils down to are the artistic sensibilities of the photographer.

Equipment Used

Nikon D7100 Camera
35mm f/1.8 lens


 Images

Always Prepared - It's Not Just for Boy Scouts

Horses approach a jump in the Montpelier Steeplechase

So I was recently invited to head down to the Montpelier, Virginia annual steeplechase horse race. A steeplechase isn't like a standard thoroughbred horse race where they simply go around a track. Oh, no, a steeplechase has horses going over (and sometimes, by mistake, through) a variety of man-made jumps on a course that can be upwards of 1.5 miles long. But, not every race uses every jump, or even the same jumps. Throughout the day, each race makes use of different portions of the course. Per usual, I brought along my camera gear, hoping to experience a great day. One thing I did not pack, however, was a schedule of the day's racing. Now, were I professionally shooting this event, this would be an unforgivable sin. If you're being paid to produce photos of an event, you damn well better know what is happening and when. How else can you plan for the best shots?

This may seem like simple advice, even for the amateur photographer just going out to have fun (me). Well, let me tell you - over the course of several hours, schedule delays, and enjoying not just the racing but the infield sites, it is quite easy to lose track of things. When you lose track of things? You end up not knowing which event is up next, nor which jumps they will (or won't) utilize. The below photo is precisely what happens when you miss a chance to get a photo as several thousand pounds of horses come thundering by, less than a foot away.

Surprise! They're on the rail for this race!

The horses did two circuits for this race. As a result of having my telephoto lens ready on the first circuit, I had to choose which lens to use for the only remaining one - 35mm or 11-16mm. As you can see, I went with my 35mm lens, and I'm fairly pleased with the result. A shot just a split second later would've captured more energy, I feel, but I'm pleased. I'll never know what the 16mm photograph would look like, since I never had the chance. So, the lesson? Be prepared!

This horse's eyes were absolutely mesmerizing

A perfect action shot... until I chopped off the jockeys' heads

Equipment Used

Nikon D7100 Camera
55-200mm f/4-5.6 lens
35mm f/1.8 lens
B+W 52mm circular polarizer filter


 Images

Shy? Get Over it and Take Some Pictures - NYC Photo Workshop Part Three

On day one, we were told that we weren't in a workshop to take far off photos of landscapes. We were in a photography class in New York City - people are everywhere, are interesting, and that's what the class would focus on. After all, you open an issue of National Geographic, and you're not looking at landscapes of cities all too often. If you're looking at photos from cities, people are the centerpiece - their lives, their personalities. So, what's the big deal?

Taking pictures of random people going about their lives, often without any interaction with them, and completely candidly is an intrusion. You're capturing them because they seem interesting to you. Something about them is captivating and beautiful. But how do you get those photos without operating a spy camera? Or by busting out a long lens and making like a birder? One of the best pieces that I've read on this is here.

For this class, we didn't get articles to read. What we got was a meeting time in Chinatown/Little Italy on a Saturday morning. Then, a simple instruction. Go out and take a biographical portrait of someone. Tell a story about the subject - not just that they're in front of your camera, but something about them, what they do, what makes them smile. Oh, and Chinatown, during market day? Not a friendly place for people with cameras. Too many tourists come by with cameras every week, and take "exotic" photos.

Some of my classmates were shy, and got "surprise" biographical photos. Others, like me, tried to chat with people and convince them to have their picture taken. I had a failed attempt to buy a fresh apple and turn that into a chance to produce images of a green grocer. The apple was pretty delicious, at least. A few of my classmates were able to make some great photos! I was jealous to see some of what my classmates produced, but everyone brought something unique to the table, and produced cool images that brought their subjects to life.

So get out there. Talk to people. Take their pictures. Offer to email the pictures to your subjects. I did that with three folks over the workshop, and they loved getting them! I may not be the most experienced or best photographer, but it makes you feel pretty good to make someone happy with a photo that you took.

Equipment Used

Nikon D7100 Camera
35mm f/1.8 lens


Images